debt harassment laws

Debt Collection Harassment?

Im 20 years old and a college student. I have a little over 2000 dollars in credit card debt. I set up a payment plan with the company and one checked bounced. They called me like five times today while i wasnt home and when i called them back they started threatening me saying i violated the law and they were gonna sue me if i dont come up with half 1000 by tomorrow when i call them back. Theyve also been calling random family members telling them they need to have me contact them. Theyve also told my parents that im bouncing check and revealing all my financial information to them. Im not sure what to do as theres no way i can get that money by tomorrow. Theyre refusing a payment plan. Any advice would be great. I live in indiana im not sure if that matters. Thanks in advance everyone!
oh and they were threatening i could be arrested and sent to jail too

There are many things that a debt collector cannot do, do an internet search and you will find the laws on this. I do know that they cannot intimidate, threaten, or harass you. They cannot tell you that they are going to garnish your wages (only a judge can do that). They cannot disclose anything about your debt to anyone other than you.
You should send them a certified letter telling them not to contact you or anyone related to you by phone, and that all correspondence must be by mail. They must abide by this, once the letter is received (this is why you send certified, so you can track it)

Now, with that said, you do have a big problem, bouncing checks is very bad, and the reason that they do not want to do a payment plan is because if they accept any payment from you, even if partial they can not go after you for the bounced check (as it is a crime in itself). Bouncing checks can get you arrested, yes they can get a warrant for your arrest quite easily on this.

Your best bet is to contact them directly, very soon (so they don’t apply to get a warrant out for you) and if the person you speak to will not go for a payment plan, speak to a supervisor. Go up the food chain. In all likelyhood even if they do get a warrant for your arrest for the fraudulent check, a judge would go lenient given your efforts to work out a payment plan.

Document everything. Ask your relatives to do so also if they are being contacted. If you can record the conversations too, if they threaten you or anything like that, use it against them. Violating the FCRA laws can get them fines from $1000 to $10,000.